Remembering 9/11

Time really does fly the older we get, its funny because having a 17 yo who is eagerly starting the college application process, he states often that it feels like forever until he graduates in the spring. Yet the longer I live, I am amazed at how fast time goes by. Today marks the 8th year since America lost her innocence and we were attacked on our own soil. My heart goes out to the survivors of those who lost loved ones as they face yet another anniversary.

I remember the day well as it was just a few weeks after I had started my dream job as program director of a homeless shelter in Chicago and it was a late day for me. Which meant I didn’t have to get in the office until noon or later. My alarm clock went off to the sounds of NPR and I heard something in that half sleep state about word of a plane crash in NYC, at that first report it didn’t sound like much. I recall waking up and turning on Good Morning America and they were talking about the story, it was before the second plane hit and in a moment things changed, as I watched the screen, I saw a plane crash into a building. Like so many American used to seeing such images in movies, I think I was temporarily desensitized and it hit me like so many others, that shit, this is big. Obviously we all know what happened next.

I was glued to the tv, I remember being scared for the Spousal Unit who had to head into downtown Chicago for work. Though Chicago was not hit, with all the chaos, folks were scared, would the Sears Tower be hit, what was next? I remember many offices closing early, stopping at the local diner for breakfast and the mood was somber, people who normally never spoke, were all speaking with tears in their eyes. The nature of my work required that I go in since its not as if the homeless have many options. Yet even with people who have the least and society ignores there was a sense of fear in the eyes of our clients. It’s a day I will never forget.

Yet in the 8 years since blood was shed on our soil, in many ways life goes on but its a new and different way of life. It hit me that many of the kids left behind by parents who were lost in the attack that many may be approaching adulthood, I wonder how they are faring?  So today I stop to remember what we lost and where we have gone since this tragic loss to our nation and the world.